A Gumbie's Tale
by Ralli
Summary: Soon to be re-written (only a few details) and 2nd chap added soon- Jennyanydots's story. This is probably going to be one long fanfic, and it'll get better eventually.


Disclaimer: I don't own "Cats", or any characters from it. It belongs to Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Really Useful Group, and T. S. Eliot.  
  
Author Note: Changes may be added to this story (such as the title and some grammar mistakes, etc) so brace yourselves. I'd also like to point out that this story is written as the cats of "Cats" are in their actual cat forms, not anthromorphic, as I've always believed that they are only anthromorphical on full moons, and during the week of the Jellicle Ball. Relationships and how everything else is pretty much opinions, so don't take anything seriously. I've also never been on a train so I dunno why I started out the story on a train.bear with me here.  
  
Information/Summary: This was an idea that popped into my mind one day at school so I wrote it down and here is the first chapter. It was first going to be about Skimbleshanks (a re-written version of "Glass Green Eyes") but since Jennyanydots is probably my favorite queen character, I decided to write it about her and how she became a Jellicle and how her life has been up to the Jellicle Ball and possibly further. This is just the first chapter.  
  
It had been a few hours ago since she first boarded the train with the young couple she lived with to a city named London. I hope it won't be much longer till we arrive there, the young queen thought, lying on the mat quietly before the door that led out into the empty corridor. The clock on the wall read 9:30 PM. The golden queen with brown stripes and leopard spots looked up, her rounded ears perked. She did not enjoy just lying there idly. She liked keeping herself occupied at night, while her humans slept after a hard day's work. Jennyanydots stretched her forelimbs, wondering how she could escape the small compartment that she and her humans made as their temporary home on their long journey to this unknown London place.  
  
Just as she was about to stand, she heard soft pad-falls right outside the door. A dog? No, it couldn't be. Dogs were naturally loud, even while simply walking. It was another cat! She listened closely, her ears straining to hear. There were more than four against the soft carpeting of the corridor. Alleluia! Humans were nice and all to chat with, but not forever, so Jennyanydots was glad to know that she wasn't the only feline to be on this noisy train. She stood up and quickly groomed her fur neatly till every hair was in its right place, and when she looked up she realized that they padding of soft paws had disappeared.  
  
Oh no! She had been on this loud thing alone and silent too long, with nobody to chat with and nothing to do: she was NOT going on like this till they arrived to their destination. For all she knew, it could be YEARS! Jenny looked around, and smiled at the sight of a small footstool (why a footstool was in there in the first place was beyond her), and as quietly as possible scooted it across the floor to the door so she could reach the doorknob. After climbing onto the footstool and standing on her hindlegs, she balanced herself by placing one paw on the door and the other on the doorknob. It took her a while to get the door open; after all, paw pads slip easily against the smooth, spherical metal handles of most doors. She managed to get it, and the door swiftly swung open on its hinges and sent her falling through the doorway, landing clumsily on her paws.  
  
Oh my. she looked back at the open doorway at her humans sleeping on the room. It could be dangerous leaving her humans alone with the door open, but it was their own fault that they did not lock the door anyway, but she closed the door behind her to its proper place just because those two DID feed her. "Now where did.whoever that was.go?" Jenny whispered to herself, gazing up and down the corridor with her soft amber eyes. Confused, she just went to her left, the first way that popped into her mind.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Her hopes were low, and felt completely baffled and quite lonesome as she sat at the entrance of the luggage car. After searching almost the whole length of the train, she could find no sign of another living creature. Had it gone into one of the other compartments? Most likely, since there was nowhere else to look, and the luggage car was so dark and gloomy looking.she didn't figure why anyone would go in there. She sighed and slowly slunk into the luggage car and into the darkness. It took shortly for her eyes to adjust to the very dim lighting.  
  
Bags and purses and suitcases were piled amongst each other in neat stacks that reminded Jennyanydots of the mountains and cliffs she had seen in a book that one of her humans had read before back at their cottage. She walked down a small "path" between the cases of belongings, looking around curiously. So many smells were in here. Jenny had no clue why humans needed so much of this junk! Why have so much of things they did not need? She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. Humans were odd creatures, and so finicky and complicated! As she weaved in and out through the packages, she caught glimpses of shoelaces and strings and ribbons hanging out from the suitcases, and occasionally pounced and killed each one. Even a proper queen kit like herself had to have some sort of fun, right? Plus, there wasn't anybody around anyway.so she thought.  
  
"The tiger is a wary, clever beast.killing nearly any creature with the swipe of a paw." she mumbled to herself, grinning slyly and giving a swift swipe to a ribbon hanging from a suitcase, and giggled. Another giggle made her return from the thick exotic jungles of India in her mind and looked around the dark luggage car cautiously. "Who's there?" she asked, straightening herself and trying to regain her already lost dignity.  
  
"No one here but us suitcases." came a deep voice, followed by a, "Yeowch!" A lean brown, shaggy moggy tom appeared atop of a nearby short stack of suitcases, followed by a cream yellow queen with a few white stripes, a white muzzle, white paws and a while chest and underbelly. The queen's aqua blue eyes were narrowed in irritation up at the tom and she sighed, shaking her head, "Oh father.that was sad." In no time at all, the father and daughter had created a quarrel and were nearly at each other's throats.  
  
Jennyanydots watched the two helplessly, baffled on what she should do. Believing that it'd be rude to leave without a proper introduction, she cleared her throat loudly and said, "Um, excuse me, Sir, Miss, I'm Jennyanydots. Who may you two be?" The duo jerked their heads toward her as if just noticing that there had been someone present, and nearly made Jenny wonder whether she should stay or run and hide. A smile creased the queen's young face, and said calmly, "Hello, Jennyanydots. I'm Jellylorum, and this is my father, Asparagus." Asparagus narrowed his eyes at his daughter and mumbled, "I prefer Gus, Jelly dear."  
  
"Jellylorum.Asparagus." echoed Jennyanydots thoughtfully, than blinked and smiled, "Oh! I remember where I heard about you two! A while back my humans and I went to see a play.umm.Growltiger's Last Stand, was it? And Mr. Gus, you were playing Growltiger! Oh, you was wonderful, Sir." Gus smiled proudly, and nodded in thanks. "But I'm not sure who you were, Jellylorum," continued Jenny, thinking for a moment, than said, "There was a young queen dressed up as a Siamese who kept poking one of the crew members on the ships with her sword. Was that you?"  
  
The yellow queen snickered and smirked guiltily, "I couldn't help myself! Plus, I never did like Skimbleshanks."  
  
Jenny giggled, "I'm sure he didn't appreciate that, did he? Who's Skimbleshanks?"  
  
"Skimbleshanks?" Jelly closed her aqua eyes carelessly and shrugged, "Oh, he's just a friend of the family. He works at the train station in London, but sometimes he takes a break and helps us out while we travel doing plays. That one night I was stabbing him with the sword because he kept eyeing me."  
  
"Eyeing you?" repeated the young golden and brown queen confusedly.  
  
"He wouldn't stop looking at me. It made me uncomfortable so I stabbed him a few times to make him quit.actually, it was quite amusing to do so anyway."  
  
Gus chuckled and grinned, "We all know why he kept 'eyeing' you, Jelly. He's had his eye on you since the day you two met."  
  
"What's up with all of the eye stuff?" asked Jenny, tilting her head and her bright hazel eyes blinked in utter confusion.  
  
"It means," began the adult, shaggy brown tom, ignoring the silent protesting glares from his daughter, "That he's crazy about her," he looked at Jenny, who still had a confused expression on her face, and shook his head and continued irritably, "He has fond feelings for her. Lovey-dovey, warm-hearted, oh come on kit, don't you understand a word I'm saying?!" The two young queens just looked at him blankly and he shook his head and trotted out of the luggage car, grumbling.  
  
".He has a.short temper?" asked Jennyanydots, giving a questioning glance to the remaining feline who nodded her head solemnly.  
  
"Be glad that you don't live with him," said Jellylorum, smiling, "He's a big softy, but does have a short temper, as you put it."  
End of the ridiculously short chapter one.I know, I suck at writing.read and review, please! No flames.x.x; 


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